Qimonda enters solar cell joint venture
1 min read
Qimonda and German solar company Centrosolar are to build, equip and operate a silicon solar cell manufacturing plant in Portugal. Qimonda will have a 51% holding in the joint venture, which will make an initial investment of €70million.
“By entering the solar industry, we are addressing an attractive market with stable and high growth rates,” said Kin Wah Loh, Qimonda’s president and ceo. “We will leverage our core competencies in silicon based, high quality mass production to generate a new revenue stream for Qimonda. Together with Centrosolar, we have developed a capital and resource efficient setup to start this promising new business.”
Centrosolar’s chairman Dr Alexander Kirsch added: “With Qimonda as a partner, we are able to guarantee a competitive quality manufacturing of solar cells, which in the future will be produced inhouse and destined for our expanding module production sites in Germany and the Netherlands.”
Production at the site is planned to beging in the second half of 2009 and it should have an initial capacity of 30million solar cells per year, equivalent to 100MW.
